Everybody Get Stupid
by grapefruitsandapples
Summary: Australian girl Kylie transfers to Hogwarts in her sixth year. She expected stuck-up British boys and girls; what she got was crazy drunk nights, an extremely cute and distracting guy and some girls that are actually nice? Whilst trying to fit in, pass her N.E.W.T.s, and not completely break down in the process, she discovers who she is and what it means to truly love someone.
1. Chapter 1 - Veela

Chapter One – Veela

 _I don't want to be here._

The thought played over and over in my angry mind as I sat on the plush leather seats of the Hogwarts Express with my cousin Kellan and his loud, stupid mates.

I wanted to be back home. Back in Australia, where my school of magic was on the gorgeous West Australian coast, where every day was hot and the students went to the beach every day and didn't speak in posh British accents.

Here in England it was cold. The kids were weird. My _cousins_ were weird.

Kellan and I were the same age – sixteen – but the last time I had seen him, we had been barely been two years old. His older brother Jai had been three, and their two younger brothers Rodin and Isaac I had never met. Never even Skyped or emailed; I never even knew they existed until the child protection unit back in Australia had informed me of who I would be living with if I chose to live with distant relatives instead of looking into adoption.

And no, my parents weren't dead. My father had abused my mother for several years, and it had only just come to light with the police. My dad had been arrested and my mum sent permanently to a mental institution in the heart of Melbourne, as apparently my dad had inflicted such wounds to her mind that she was unable to cope on her own anymore.

Biggest load of bullshit I ever heard, but who was I to argue with the professionals? There wasn't really much I could do about it anyway. So, I'd packed up my things and been shipped off to England in the middle of August to live with my aunt Josie and my four cousins, two of which I barely remember and the other two I had never even met.

Fun times.

Kellan was a stranger to me. When I'd arrived he'd yelled out my name excitedly and crushed me in a huge bear hug. I'd been too surprised to do anything.

He introduced me to his mates when we got on the train and found a compartment with a big group of boys, and introduced me as his 'crocodile-fighting, kangaroo-riding, barbeque fanatic cousin Kylie'.

"This is Jace," Kellan said. "Aiden, Brayden, Chase, Tom, Will, and Haru." The last one, Haru, looked very out of place. He looked to be of Japanese descent, his jet-black hair spiked up and his teeth brilliant and white. "James is usually a part of our group, but he's off doing whatever it is prefects do on the train."

"James, prefect. I can't believe it," Haru said, a slight flicker of a Japanese accent colouring his words.

"Yeah man, I thought you would have been prefect for sure, Haru, and James Quidditch Captain," Jace said, running a hand through his floppy blonde hair.

"Hey!" Kellan said. "I'm perfectly capable of being Quidditch Captain."

"I know, but just not how I thought it would have turned out," Jace said. "Like seriously, what is going through McGonagall's head? James's head has three settings: girls, Quidditch, and pranks."

"He gets straight O's," Haru shrugged.

"And so do you," Jace said.

Haru shrugged again.

Pretty soon I tuned out of the conversation; it didn't interest me very much.

I spent the majority of the eight-hour train ride reading a book. The boys didn't talk to me very much. I guess they just didn't have anything to say that might actually interest a girl.

About half an hour before we arrived, I left the compartment to go to the bathrooms to change into my robes.

Before I left I looked in the big mirror framing the wall. My long, dead-straight blonde hair hung in a loose plait down my back with a few stray strands framing my heart-shaped face. Miraculously, all through my teenage years, I had managed to not get a single pimple, and my skin remained fair and my cheeks slightly rosy. My eyes were big, a greyish-sea green with long black lashes framing them. I was the spitting image of my mother; and my aunt Josie, except Josie had long dark hair instead of long blonde hair. I don't really know how that had worked out, as they were sisters.

Leaning in closer, I decided to patch up my makeup a little bit and redid my black eyeliner on my lower waterline and brushing my lashes with black mascara. I looked fine without it but the makeup made my eyes pop, and the pale pink gloss that I swiped over my lips made them look plumper. Once I was happy with my appearance, I opened the door into the corridor and walked outside; only to hear an indignant _"Ow!"_ as my sudden opening of the door knocked right into someone.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, quickly shutting the door and taking a step towards the person I had hit. It was a boy, around my age, maybe a bit older, with untidy brown-black hair. I couldn't see his face, as his hands were covering it, blood dripping through his fingers.

"Oh no!" I exclaimed. "Are – are you alright?"

I couldn't believe this. I wasn't even at Hogwarts yet, and I had already given some guy a bloody nose.

"You broke my bloody nose," the guy swore, and I took a step back, recoiling.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to –"

The guy removed his hands and looked up at me. "Sorry to seem rude," he said, but I barely heard him. He…he was the most beautiful thing I had _ever_ seen.

He had big almond-shaped brown eyes framed by long black lashes, a gorgeous strong jawline that was apparent even with blood streaming down his face, and the nicest, most kissable lips I had ever seen –

Woah. Hold up. I had only just met the guy, didn't even know his name and for some reason my cheeks were heating up and my heartbeat was running at a million miles an hour.

"Holy shit," I said.

"What?" he asked, bemused.

I snapped out of my trance, shaking my head and blinking a few times.

"S – Sorry," I stuttered. "Um…is your nose alright?"

"I think it actually is broken," he said. "You slammed the door pretty hard…" he laughed.

"Hang on, I know a charm…" I pulled out my wand and pointed it at his bleeding nose. "It will probably hurt a little… _episky."_ There was a crack and the boy cried out but his nose jolted back into place and the bleeding stopped.

"Ow," he said.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you," I said, all of a sudden regretting the charm, feeling like I had hurt this beautiful blessing to the human race.

"No, no, it's okay, the pain's fading," he said. "Got any charms for cleaning up blood, by any chance?"

"Er…no," I said apologetically. Damn. I really wanted to impress this guy.

"That's okay. I'll clean it up the muggle way." The blood had seeped into his mouth and the toothy grin he gave me was soaked in red blood. "Anyway, I'm James. Sixth year. I don't think I've seen you around before?"

So _this_ is the James Kellan and his friends had been talking about, saying he was usually a part of their group…Oh god. I couldn't help but feel pleased.

"Ah…Kylie Clancy, sixth year as well. I'm a transfer from Australia…I'm Kellan Daniels' cousin."

"Oh! So you're the famous veela girl everyone's been talking about!" James exclaimed.

The famous _what?_

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Kellan wrote to all his mates halfway through the summer to tell us that his veela cousin was coming to live with him and come to Hogwarts this year," he explained. "This is _not_ the way I expected to meet you!"

"Sorry!" I felt my cheeks heating up even more. God, this was embarrassing. "Um…" I just remembered something he had said. "What's a veela?"

"You don't know what a veela is?!" he exclaimed. "Merlin, what do they teach you down under? A veela is a magical creature that takes the form of an extremely good looking boy or girl, and full veelas draw their victims in by their charm and looks and then kill them…sort of like mermaids, but on land. And when they get angry or are about to kill they turn into some sort of satanic creature with wings and fire and shit like that."

"I – I've never –"

"You're not full veela," he explained, "else you wouldn't be accepted into a school of magic and you wouldn't need a wand to project your magic. Veelas have different kinds of magic, but they don't attend wizarding schools. Kellan said his mum's a full veela, but his dad's a wizard. So that makes him half veela. I'm guessing you're the same, since you're here and just used a wand to fix my nose?"

I opened and closed my mouth, unable to formulate any kind of speech for a few moments.

"I – I never – my mum never told me any of this," I said.

He shrugged. "Probably didn't think you needed to know."

I shouldn't have expected my mother to tell me; she never even told me about puberty, and I thought I was dying when I first got my period. I'd had to find my own way back home. My parents hadn't given much in the form of guidance.

"Um…I have tissues in my bag back in Kellan's compartment, do you want some?" I asked.

"Sure!" he said, grinning his bloody grin again. "I just finished my rounds anyway."

I made sure to walk in front of him; I didn't want to be tempted to stare at the back of his head as we walked. And besides, I knew where the compartment was anyway.

When I arrived the boys had opened the curtains back up and were playing a game of Exploding Snap. When I opened the door and James and I stepped through they all yelled out, yelling "Jamesy" and "What the hell happened to you man". While James sat down to recount the broken nose story I stepped onto the seat and reached up to open my trunk. I kept the tissues in a pocket on the side along with other essentials, and I pulled them out, shut my trunk and sat down where I had been standing.

James smiled at me and I tossed the packet of tissues to him.

"Cheers Kylie," he said, and began ripping out the tissues and vigorously rubbing at his face.

"Dude, don't you have a charm for that or something?" one of the boys asked. I couldn't remember his name.

"Nah. Don't know anything. The muggle way is the best way," James replied.

"You're going to look dirty for Lily's Sorting," Kellan said.

James shrugged. "She won't notice."

For the remaining half an hour none of the boys really talked to me, and I sat by the window quietly sneaking glances at James whenever I could. What was with me? I'd literally only just met the bloke, and had immediately begun crushing hard. This had never happened before, and there had been plenty of hot guys at my school in Australia.

And I'd broken his nose before I had even learned his name.

I groaned internally. This was a _great_ start.


	2. Chapter 2 - Gryffindor

Chapter Two – Gryffindor

Pretty soon the train stopped. I stood up and was about to reach for my trunk, but Haru, the Japanese boy, laid a hand on my arm and told me that they would be brought up for us.

I smiled in thanks and followed the rest of them out into the packed corridor. I stayed right behind Kellan, trying hard to blend in, but it didn't seem to be working as I got several long looks. The girls looked pretty bitchy.

"Have you already been sorted?" one of Kellan's friends nudged me. I blinked. I couldn't remember his name; I could only remember Haru and James. Oh well; I guess I would get to know them in time.

"Um, no," I said.

"Oh, well I'm sure –"

"Miss Clancy!"

I whipped around at the sound of my name. My eyes landed on a vibrantly redheaded woman pushing through the crowd towards me, calling out my name.

"Kylie Clancy, I presume?" the woman asked when she finally reached me.

"Uh, yes," I said.

"Come with me. You'll be sorted separately, as I'm sure you don't want to have to stand up there with all the first-years," she said.

"Okay. Yeah. Thank you," I said. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from Kellan and his friends.

"My name is Professor Bronson. I'm the deputy Headmistress here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and also the Transfiguration professor. You are taking my class, correct?"

"Yeah," I said.

"You will receive your timetable tomorrow morning at breakfast. Lessons presume at nine o'clock. If you should have any trouble finding your way around, please do not hesitate to ask me, another staff member or a student," she said. "I trust you have made some friends?"

"Ah, yeah, sort of. Well, all my cousin's friends," I said.

"Ah, yes, Kellan Daniels. Bright boy that one, but his talents go so wasted," she said wistfully. "His head is more on impressing girls and impressing his friends than it is on his schoolwork."

"Maybe he'll pull his head in this year," I said.

"Hopefully," she said.

We arrived at a wooden carriage. Professor Bronson opened the door and gestured for me to go first. I nodded and smiled in appreciation and stepped inside. It was a lot bigger inside the carriage than it looked outside.

Bronson stepped in behind me and closed the door. "I trust you are aware of the housing system?" she asked, as the carriage jolted into motion and we began moving.

"Ah, not really," I said. "We had houses at my old school, but I don't really know how anything works here."

"If you want to get to know Hogwarts a bit better I'd suggest you read the book _Hogwarts: A History._ It's quite famous, and would be quite a handy read for a new student."

"I'll look into it," I said, knowing that I was lying. I wasn't really into history books.

"Well, I will explain our houses to you. There are four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin."

 _What ridiculous names,_ I thought.

"Usually, in their first year students are sorted by what we call the Sorting Hat, a hat charmed to look into your mind and sort you into the house it thinks you best suit. Gryffindor, Kellan's house, values bravery. Hufflepuff values loyalty. Ravenclaw values knowledge. And Slytherin values ambition," Bronson said. "Do you see yourself as having any four of those traits straight out?"

"Well, I think I'm pretty brave for travelling to the other side of the world to live with relatives I don't know to a school I've never heard of in my second last year of schooling," I said.

"I agree, Miss Clancy. That is very brave of you. But the Daniels are a good family, and you are in good hands here."

I simply nodded in reply.

The carriage came to a halt, and Bronson opened the door and stepped out. I followed.

Apparently Hogwarts was meant to be an amazing view at night, but we seemed to have come to a back door, so the view wasn't that spectacular from where I was. Bronson opened the door and showed me in.

She led me up two staircases before coming to a door with 'BRONSON' in big gold letters labelled on it.

"This is my office, and this is where you will be sorted," she said. She closed the door. "Sit on the stool."

I did as I was told, lowering myself onto the wooden three-legged stool in the middle of the office.

Bronson lifted an old, dusty hat from the shelf beside me. Huh?

She came over to me and placed the hat on my head. I gasped in surprise as I heard a little voice speaking in my ear.

 _Hmm, interesting,_ it said.

"Are you a talking hat?" I asked out loud.

"You don't need to speak aloud. It can hear your thoughts," Bronson explained.

 _This is so weird_.

 _Quite an adjustment, Miss Clancy,_ the Hat whispered. _Oh yes, you have quite a few secrets…doors that you don't want to be unlocked…_

 _Shut up. My life is none of your business,_ I snapped.

 _I can see it all, Miss Clancy, I can't help it. I'm not judging you. I'm simply trying to decide…my, this is difficult. The last veela I had to sort was your cousin last year. Mighty hard to decide on, you veelas are._

 _I only just found out today what a veela actually was. Can we just get on with it?_

 _Of course, Miss Clancy, of course. Now…let's see…you were in the house of community at your old school, hmm? Pity there's no community house here, you would fit right in. Now…you are quite clever, but not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed…Ravenclaw is not for you. Slytherin? Hufflepuff? No, Hufflepuff is too mild for you. You would get very bored._

I gripped the edges of the stool until my knuckles turned white. I didn't like this. I didn't like this one bit.

 _You are very defensive of those you love, and passionate, oh the passion…but then again that is very common in veelas,_ it said.

 _Stop calling me a veela._

 _Okay, Miss Clancy, as you wish. Now, Gryffindor or Slytherin…are you more ambitious, or are you more brave?_

 _Put me in Kellan's house,_ I thought. _All my cousins are in Gryffindor. James – James is in Gryffindor._

No point hiding my newly found crush from the Hat that can see to the very darkest depths of my mind.

 _You want to go into Gryffindor for a boy?_ The Hat questioned.

 _My family is in Gryffindor._

 _Are you sure you want to go into Gryffindor? Slytherin is looking very promising…_

 _Well where do you think I am most suited?_

 _You fit the mould for both houses, my dear. I am leaving the final choice up to you. I am just giving you many a chance to change your mind._

 _Put me with James._

 _Are you sure?_

 _Yes, Hat, I'm sure._

 _Very well, Miss Clancy…_ "GRYFFINDOR!"

Bronson took the Hat off my head.

"Somehow I knew that that would be the case," she smiled.

I smiled weakly back. She picked up the stool in the hand that wasn't carrying the hat and told me to follow her.

We walked down the two staircases again but instead of going back out the door we came in, she led me to a different door. Behind it I could hear a dull babble of voices.

The door was slightly ajar, and she nudged it open and walked through before letting me through.

This must be the eating hall. Man, it was big. Back in Australia we'd had an outdoor eating area, with muggle as well as magical music blasting and soft grass as well as many tables to lounge around on to eat. The food had been served on a big buffet table underneath a veranda. When the weather was foul one of the teachers had cast a spell so there was sort of a bubble over the area, keeping warmth in and rain out.

But this, this was a different story; the hall was massive, with four long tables packed with students all lined up and another long table out the front near where I was standing with a big golden throne in the middle. That must be for the headmaster.

The ceiling looked as if there was no actual roof. It looked like the sky outside. Pretty damn amazing.

"You sit at that table," Bronson pointed to the table on the far right. "Your cousin seems to have spotted you."

I looked over at the table she had pointed to. Indeed, Kellan and all his mates were yelling and beckoning for me to come over to them.

Legs feeling like jelly, I walked over. James was sitting across from Kellan in between two very pretty girls. I felt a stab of jealousy. _Stupid bitches._

"Kylie! You got Gryffindor?" Kellan asked as I reached him.

"Yeah," I said.

"Woo!" he and his mates cheered.

"Hell yeah! Cuzzy best friend! Sit down," Kellan said, moving over to make space for me. I sat down.

"Hey Kylie," the guy on my other side said.

"Um…hey," I said.

"Do you remember my name?" he asked.

"Ah…no, sorry," I said apologetically.

"I'm Tom," he laughed. "Welcome to Gryffindor!"

I smiled shyly. "Thanks."

"Hey, Kylie! Do I look alright now?"

My heart skipped a beat; James was speaking.

I turned away from Tom and looked over at James. He was grinning his toothy grin again, but all the blood had gone.

"Yeah. You look fine," I said.

"Better than fine!" he bellowed, fist-pumping the air. "I look _gorgeous._ "

 _I couldn't agree more._

"You'll have to excuse him," one of the girls next to James, a blonde like me, leaned over the table to talk to me. "He's a bit…up himself."

I managed a small smile. "Aussies are worse."

"I'm Rosalie," she said. "Sixth year, like you. We'll be roommates." She smiled.

"Nice to meet you," I said, "I'm Kylie."

"So you're from Australia?" Rosalie said. "That's pretty cool, I've never been. What's it like? Do you actually ride kangaroos to school?"

I couldn't help but laugh.

"No, we don't. I went to a boarding school kind of similar to this, but it was more like a little beach village than a castle in the mountains," I said. "It's…a big change," I admitted.

Rosalie nodded understandingly. "Yes, it would be. I went on a holiday to America a few summers ago, bloody Merlin it was different! I couldn't imagine going to another country and living there permanently," she said.

I shrugged. "I have Kellan here so at least that's one person I know…"

"Oh yeah, you guys are cousins right?" she said.

I opened my mouth to say, yes, we are cousins, but at that moment the huge double doors opened and an absolutely _huge_ man walked in the doors, leading a group of scared-looking eleven-year-olds into the hall.

"I see Lily!" James exclaimed. "Where's Hugo? There he is! There's my little man!"

I had no idea the kids he was talking about. They must be relatives of his. Siblings maybe.

The first-years reached the front of the hall.

"When I call your name," Bronson called out, "You will come forth, place the Sorting Hat on your head and wait to be sorted into your houses," she said. She cleared her throat. "Abbot, Tina."

A small brown-haired girl walked up to the stool, looking nervous as ever. My, I was glad Bronson had let me be sorted separately.

The hat only took a few seconds to decide. "GRYFFINDOR!" it yelled out.

My table erupted in cheers.

"On ya, Tina!" Tom whooped beside me.

"Do you know her?" I asked him.

"No," he laughed, "but she's the first one and she made Gryffindor. Something to be quite proud of."

"Okay."

I turned back to the sorting.

Pretty soon I tuned out. There were a million first-years to get through, and I was _starving._

I was nearly falling asleep, when suddenly James's voice boomed above the cheering "YES LILY, YES! CONGRATULATIONS LITTLE SISTER!"

I looked up. James was making room for a small redheaded girl to sit beside him. She shyly took a seat, accepting high fives from everyone around her.

This was James's little sister? They looked nothing alike. James's hair was dark, and hers was flaming red. Her face was dotted with freckles and his was clear. But they did share the same almond-shaped dark brown eyes.

"I was afraid you'd go over to the dark side and join Al in Slytherin," James said. "Bloody disgrace, that boy is. He even befriended a Malfoy."

"James!" Lily hit James on the arm. "I like Al more than you."

"Ooh, burn!" Kellan crooned.

"Oh, I'm hurt," James said. "How could you Lil? How could you?"

Lily just rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the sorting.

The next redhead that James was cheering was 'Weasley, Hugo'. Lily called for him to come and sit with her, but he didn't hear and sat down where the rest of the first-years were sitting. Cousins maybe? He and James looked nothing alike, but he and Lily could almost be twins.

Hugo Weasley was the last kid to be sorted, and the hall went silent as the black-haired man on the golden throne stood up.

"Welcome! To the first-years, welcome to Hogwarts, and to the rest of you, welcome back! I hope you all had an excellent summer," he said. "I know you are all hungry but I will get through this quickly. First-years, the Forbidden Forest is always off-limits unless otherwise specified and supervised by myself or another staff member. All products from the stores Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and Zonko's are strictly forbidden. Now, I think that's it. Let the feast begin!"

I looked back down at the table and all of a sudden an amazing array of food had appeared on the table.

"Woah," I said.

"Don't just look at it, Kylie. Eat it!" Kellan said.

I did so, filling my plate with potatoes, chicken, strawberries (my favourite) and filling my bowl on the side of my plate with a nice-looking chicken and vegetable soup.

For a little while I didn't talk, just ate. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast this morning, and I was _starving._

The food was amazing. Almost better than the food back home. Almost.

"Like the food?" Rosalie asked.

"Yes, it's so good," I said. "Who makes it?"

"The house-elves," Rosalie answered. "They're pretty good cooks hey?"

I nodded. "Certainly are."

I didn't talk much during dinner, just listened to the conversations going on around me. Most of them were about Quidditch, and catching up on each other's summers. I'm glad people didn't talk to me. I wanted to eat, and then go straight to bed.

After the feast James disappeared, taking Lily with him. Kellan explained it was the prefects' job to show the first-years the common room.

"You can just come with us," Rosalie said, smiling. I liked Rosalie. She was friendly.

Rosalie led me up several staircases and past several old-looking moving paintings. Man, this school was so different. I liked it though. My old school had been beachy, open and chillaxed; this place was old, it was interesting.

We reached a very large portrait of a very large lady in a pink dress.

"Password?" the lady asked us.

" _Godric,_ " Rosalie said confidently. The lady smiled and the portrait swung open like a door, and Rosalie and I stepped through.

The room beyond was nice. Red and gold themed, it had more portraits on the walls, a big fireplace and comfy-looking red armchairs spread around tables and near the fire.

"This is the Gryffindor common room," Rosalie said. "Nice, isn't it?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Looks cosy."

"Our dorms are up this way," Rosalie said, leading me over to a stone staircase on the side of the room.

We walked up the staircase and past several doors until she stopped at one with 'sixth-years' engraved on it. She pushed the door open and revealed a nice, red and gold themed room with eight four-poster beds around the room.

"This one's yours," Rosalie said, leading me over to a bed at the far end of the room. "The rest of the girls should be in soon…"

As if on cue, the door opened again and four girls walked in; the other blonde that was sitting next to James at the feast, a redhead and two brunettes. They all smiled at Rosalie and I.

"Hey Rose," the redhead said cheerfully.

"Hey," Rosalie said. "Guys, this is Kylie, the transfer. Kylie, this is Lillian" she gestured to the redhead "Clara" the blonde "Lilac and Grace," the two brunettes.

"Hey, you're Kellan's cousin right?" one of the brunettes smiled at me. I had forgotten which one was which already.

"Yeah," I said.

"I'm his girlfriend," she smiled.

"He has a girlfriend?" I asked. "How long?"

"Three weeks and two days," she said.

"Oh okay," I said.

"Better hope you make it to a month, Kellan has never in his entire life been in a relationship longer than a month," Lillian the redhead laughed.

"Well, only five more days to go." The brunette flipped her hair over her shoulder.

I wasn't sure if I liked her. She seemed kind of…prissy.

"Which one's that?" I whispered to Rosalie.

"That's Grace," Rosalie whispered back.

"Why is she dating my cousin?"

"Because he's a man whore," Rosalie giggled. "Even I went out with him back in the day."

"Woah."

"Kellan is like, the hottest guy in sixth year…I wish I was part veela. You're so lucky," Rosalie said.

"I didn't even know what a veela was, or that I was one, until today, literally…veelas don't exist in Australia," I admitted.

"Really? That's so weird. They're actually pretty common in Europe but most of them are French."

"Maybe that's where they originate from," I guessed.

Rosalie shrugged. "Maybe," she said. "Anyway, I don't know where Bonnie and Paris are…I'm going to bed now. Night."

"Night," I said.

 _Maybe this won't be so bad,_ I thought.

Boy, was I wrong about that.


	3. Chapter 3 - Learning the Ropes

Chapter Three – Learning the Ropes

The next day we started classes.

I was taking six subjects: Transfiguration, Defence against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. My best subject at my old school had been Care of Magical Creatures, by far. I loved animals; I felt like 'creatures' was too eerie a word to describe the beauty I found in every single soul that was not human. I'd always wanted a pet, but my father had never allowed it. I wasn't rubbish at all the other subjects, but I didn't excel in any of them, either. I was more of an E and A student, rather than an O, except in Care of Magical Creatures which I had always gotten an O in.

My first subject today was Transfiguration, followed by Defence against the Dark Arts. Luckily, Rosalie was taking Transfiguration as well, so she could show me the way.

When we arrived Rosalie led me to a seat near the back. We were one of the first few there; there were no other Gryffindors in the classroom yet.

Kellan wasn't taking Transfiguration; he'd told me he was only taking five subjects: Defence against the Dark Arts, Potions, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, and Charms. I'd see him next period.

I couldn't help but wonder what subjects James was taking. I hadn't seen him this morning, but even if I had I doubt that I would have had enough confidence to say anything to him.

I'd never felt this way about a guy before. It was strange. Like, I'd had crushes and boyfriends before, but I'd never felt like…like this. And I barely even knew him.

"Hey ladies!" a voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked up; it was Haru the Japanese guy, Tom, and one other Gryffindor I couldn't remember the name of. Tom was the one who had spoken.

"Go away, Bonnie and Grace are sitting here," Rosalie said.

"Well they're clearly not," Tom said.

"They will be, scram," Rosalie said.

"But Rose, I thought we were friends!" Tom exclaimed dramatically.

"Not anymore. Don't sit with us," Rosalie snapped.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Fine." The trio walked off.

"Bit harsh there?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I hate him," Rosalie grumbled.

"Why? I thought he seemed alright."

"He broke my heart, and he just loves to rub it in my face every day," Rosalie said, "and he thinks I still love him."

"Do you?" I asked.

"No, he's a selfish arrogant prat that I wouldn't care less about if the Giant Squid swallowed him whole. I _hate_ him."

"Were you guys together for a while?"

"Yeah. Nine months. Until he left me for some Ravenclaw slut," Rosalie snarled.

"Bash her," I said.

"What, Muggle fighting? No thanks. That's so uncivilised," Rosalie laughed. "Hexes are my thing, and boy did they both get it."

"What did you do?"

"When they were kissing I used a Sticking Charm so they were stuck together like that for ages. And then I used a hex to make boils come up all over their skin just for good measure," Rosalie said.

"Shit, girl. I would have liked to have seen that."

"It was awesome," Rosalie said gleefully. "So worth all the detentions I earned from it."

"Of course," I said.

"Finally!" Rosalie exclaimed as Grace and a blonde Gryffindor girl I didn't know walked into the classroom.

"There you are," the blonde said. She smiled at me. "Hi. I'm Bonnie."

"Kylie," I said.

Bonnie and Grace sat down on the table in front of Rosalie and I. As soon as I did so, the door slammed shut and the bright-haired Professor Bronson strode into the room.

"Good morning class," she said.

"Good morning Professor Bronson," the class chanted back.

 _They still do that here? Wow, I haven't done that since second-year,_ I thought.

"Now, today we are going to start something a little trickier than what we did last year: human transfiguration," she said. "To start –"

The door banged open. "Sorry I'm late Miss."

My heart skipped a beat. James.

"Mr Potter, what is it this time?" Bronson sighed, as if this was a regular occurrence.

"I actually have a valid reason this time Professor Bronson. I was showing a couple of first-years to their class," she said. "That is a prefects' duty, is it not?"

Professor Bronson rolled her eyes.

"You are an idiot, James Potter. Go and take a seat next to Mr Hitachi."

James grinned at her before taking a seat next to Haru near the front.

"Now, as I was saying, human transfiguration…"

I tuned out for most of the lesson. Australian curriculum was clearly ahead of British curriculum, as I'd learned and mastered all of this last year.

I sighed quietly and looked out the window. It was nice weather today. Sunny and warm, but not agonisingly hot like it always was back home. The weather here had actually been quite nice so far.

"Miss Clancy?"

I snapped back to attention and turned my head back to face the professor.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Were you paying attention?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," I said unconvincingly.

"What did I just say?"

"Um…"

"Human transfiguration is not illegal, but the permanent spell is. If you're caught transfiguring someone else permanently into an animal or object, you will be sentenced to Azkaban," James said promptly.

"I was asking Miss Clancy, not you Mr Potter, but yes, that is correct. Miss Clancy, five points from Gryffindor for not paying attention. I know that you are new to this school but inattention will not be tolerated."

Cheeks burning, I slid down further on my seat. My first lesson, on my first day, and I had already been embarrassed and gotten points taken away from my house.

I looked at James. He'd turned around and was looking at me. I felt my cheeks get even hotter. He grinned, and winked before turning back around to face the professor.

 _Did he just…did he just wink at me?!_

Oh God. He did. He winked at me.

And there went my concentration for the rest of the lesson.

My second subject of the day was Defence against the Dark Arts. Rosalie wasn't in this class; she had Arithmancy. Bonnie wasn't either, but Grace was. Kellan's girlfriend.

James, Tom, Haru and the other guy rushed out as soon as the bell started ringing; I hadn't even packed up my books. Outside the classroom Rosalie and Bonnie said goodbye and I turned to face Grace. She would know where to go.

"So, Defence against the Dark Arts," I said.

She smiled. "This way," she said, and began leading me down the corridor.

We walked in awkward silence. Rosalie and I had found things to talk about, but I felt like the awkwardness between Grace and I was so thick I could cut it with a knife.

"So, um…" Grace made an awkward attempt at conversation. "You're Kellan's cousin?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Mum's side or dad's side?" she asked.

"Mum's," I said. "He's in Defence yeah?"

"Yeah, he is. He's in most of my classes," she said. "But, well, I am only taking four classes."

"What classes are you taking?"

"Transfiguration, Defence against the Dark Arts, Muggle Studies and Arithmancy. I want to become a muggle rights lawyer when I'm older; I'm muggleborn, and while everyone says that muggleborns and muggles are just as important as other wizards since the Second War, I don't think that's true. Muggles are still treated like shit by most wizards."

"Maybe you should move to Australia," I suggested. "The wizards may think the muggles are dumb idiots but there's no real prejudice."

"But that's still prejudice see, what the wizards think of them," Grace argued.

"Not really."

"But –"

"Don't you have to be hell qualified to become a lawyer?" I said.

Grace looked annoyed at the change of subject, but didn't say anything about it. "Not the kind of lawyer I want to become. I actually only need to pass three of my N.E.W.T.s, Muggle Studies being the only one I _have_ to pass. But I'm taking four, just in case."

"Wow."

"What do you want to be when you're older?" Grace asked brightly, her annoyance on my take of muggle rights disappearing. "How many subjects are you doing?"

"Seven," I said, "and, honestly, I have no idea. My careers counsellor just asked what I enjoyed and what I was good at. But I love animals…so maybe something to do with them."

"Wow, seven! Your timetable must be so full on," she exclaimed. "Do you have any frees?"

"Yeah, a couple."

"My timetable is mostly frees, but half of them are tutoring lessons. I'm a bit dumb," Grace laughed. "I only just passed my O.W.L.s last year."

"Oh wow."

"Cuzzy!" a familiar booming voice interrupted our conversation. "Gracey!"

I found myself being tackled by a familiar large and muscly figure. Kellan.

"Hey cuz," I said, trying out the new cousin slang that he had adopted for me. "How's it going?"

"Great! Looking forward to having a class with my cuzzy, and my baby girl!" he released me and engulfed Grace in a big hug before leaning back and then crushing his lips to hers.

I rolled my eyes and turned away. I still wasn't really sure about Grace.

I looked around. Clara and Lillian were standing near the door, chatting – or rather, hair-twirling and giggling – to a couple of boys in Gryffindor ties that I had forgotten the names of. James wasn't among them.

I found myself standing awkwardly between a group of whispering Slytherins and the still-making out couple. I bit my lip.

I wish mobile phones worked here. Apparently the magic interferes with the signal or something like that, but really I just think there's no service in this godforsaken place. The magic at my old school hadn't interfered with them, and we'd been allowed to have them as long as we kept them away during class times. I hadn't even bothered to bring mine here. It was still sitting on the bedside cabinet at Josie's house in the unfamiliar room that had become mine. I wondered how many messages and notifications I would have when I finally got back to it.

My friends back home would think I was ignoring them and wanted nothing to do with them. Which sucked, because I missed them so much. I wanted to talk to them every day. But now, I couldn't talk to them until Christmas.

"Why do you look so down?" a voice penetrated my thoughts. I recognised it immediately. James. "That melancholy expression looks so out of place on such a pretty face."

Immediately I felt my cheeks heat up like an oven.

"Um," I said. It was all I could get out. God help me.

"Is it because of the intense lip-sucking happening right beside you?" James snorted with laughter. "They're not shy about PDA, are they?"

"Um, guess not," I said awkwardly. "I…didn't really know where I should stand."

"Stand with me," James said cheerfully, "and sit with me in class. Usually I'd have friends in this class but Kellan will be sitting with Grace and my two home boys over there have been trying so hard to get in with Clara since fourth-year, with no success, that they aren't going to give up now. Poor Lillian thinks they're into her. I don't want to be the mean one that says no one likes rangas."

"Woah…harsh," I said. "And okay. I'll stand with you. And, um, sit with you. If no one else does."

"Trust me hun no one else will. Kellan always ditches me when he finds a new pussy," he said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, biggest man-whore out. Right, Kell?" James punched Kellan's shoulder so hard he lost his balance and hopped around on one of his feet for a few moments before regaining his balance by grabbing onto Grace.

"What, man?" he said. "You ruined it."

"Sorry, man, go back to your snogging," James said.

"What's snogging?" I asked.

"You don't know what snogging is?!" James exclaimed incredulously.

"Ah…no."

"Kissing! What Kellan and Grace were doing…and are back to it now. What do you call it in Australia?"

"Hooking up, making out, kissing, whatever really," I said, "but never have I ever heard the term snogging before."

"Doesn't hooking up mean, you know, _all_ the way?" James asked.

"No, there's even more words for that."

"God, Australians are weird!" he laughed.

"Brits are weirder," I said.

"Class, inside!" a male voice called. The professor must be here.

"Cotty's cool," James said.

"Who's Cotty?" I asked as we walked inside. He led me to a desk at the back.

"Professor Cotterill, he's our professor for Defence," James said. "He's a sick lad."

"That's good then," I said as we deposited our books on the desk. I swallowed nervously. My heart was practically jumping out of my chest. How was I supposed to get through an entire lesson with him sitting right next to me, his elbow so close to mine I could touch it if I moved just a centimetre?

"Now!" Professor Cotterill said as everyone sat down. "We have a new student, I believe! Miss Clancy, would you care to come up the front please?"

 _Oh God._

I'd always felt so sorry for the kids that had transferred to my old school and had been forced to go up and introduce themselves on the first day. And now, I was in that position.

Biting my lip, I stood up and slowly made my way to the front, all eyes on me. I wish I had the confidence that I saw some girls strutting about with. I had none of that.

"Just tell us your name, where you're from and something about yourself," Cotterill said warmly.

I turned to face the class. Kellan gave me a huge grin and a thumbs up.

I smiled a little and said, as loudly and clearly as I could, "I'm Kylie Clancy. I'm from Beacon Beach Academy of Magic in Australia, and, ah…I'm Kellan's cousin," I blurted out. I had nothing else to say that could possibly interest them; Kellan's thumbs up had inspired it, I think.

"Really?" Cotterill asked. "Well, I certainly hope that you're not as much of a troublemaker as Mr Daniels!"

Kellan burst out laughing. "Oh sir, I'm never in trouble," he said.

"Forty-five detentions last year, only served out by me…"

"You kept count, sir?" Kellan laughed.

"It's part of a teacher's job," Cotterill said. "Thank you, Miss Clancy. You can sit down now."

It was hard not to bolt back to my seat. It seemed to take forever for me to reach it, even with James's encouraging smile.

When I finally did reach it, he leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, "You're so cute when you're nervous."

My cheeks burned. Did he actually just say that? That's the second compliment he's paid me in ten minutes. I didn't know how to respond. So I didn't. I just looked at him sideways and gave him a small, shy smile.

God, I was terrible with people, especially cute guys.


	4. Chapter 4 - Party

Chapter Four – Party

The rest of the week went by quicker than I could blink and before I knew it, it was Friday.

Transfiguration was first on Friday. Thankfully I hadn't gotten any more points deducted the last two Transfiguration lessons I had had after the dreadfully embarrassing first one. Bronson was still droning on about human transfiguration; we hadn't even done a practical lesson yet.

The hour I was sitting in that classroom seemed to drag on forever but eventually it was time for second period, which thankfully was a free. I was so tired.

I headed back up to the common room with James. Neither of us were really talking. I was racking my brain to think of something to say and start a conversation; but my mind always came up blank. We walked in awkward silence to the common room.

Thankfully when we reached the common room Rosalie, Clara and Aiden were sitting around a table and having a jolly good chat so we made a beeline for them. Homework was spread over the table but none of them seemed to be doing it.

"Hey crew," James said. "What's been happening?"

"Friday is such a good day, I have frees first period and second," Rosalie said.

"So lucky," James groaned. "I hardly have any frees."

"Me neither," I said. "I want a double free."

"Means I can party all night on Thursday and not have to get up until 11:30," Rosalie said.

"Speaking of parties," James said cheerfully. "Who's coming tonight?"

"What? Party? Who's having a party?" Clara asked.

"Me and Fred. We snuck down to Hogsmeade last night and since he's seventeen now, we don't have to bribe the barmaid to purchase Firewhiskey," James said. "We're throwing a party tonight up in Fred's dorm. They have a Silencing Charm on it already so no one will hear us and dob us in. You in Clara? Kylie?"

"Woah, uh," I said, "yeah, I guess so. But I'm not drinking."

"Why not?!" James exclaimed. "It's so much fun!"

"I - I've had bad experiences with alcohol," I admitted.

I bit my lip. My dad was an alcoholic, and it was when he was drunk that he was most violent to my mum. I don't want to be like that. And besides...I'd had some pretty bad experiences of my own when I had been drinking.

"Come on, please, for me," James pleaded.

I looked at him. I felt like he actually really wanted me to come. He even had the puppy dog eyes.

I sighed. "Fine," I said. "But I'm not drinking _much._ "

"Yay!" James fist-pumped the air. "This is gonna be _awesome!_ "

Several hours later I was in my dorm room's bathroom, applying heavy winged eyeliner while my dorm mates hurried around in various forms of undress, screeching at each other and asking where the silver eyeliner was.

I'd been in the bathroom for the last hour, applying my makeup as perfect as I could. I wanted to look _hot._ I hadn't drawn winged eyeliner in so long but, as I finished my second eye, I could see that I still had the talent. Makeup had always come pretty easy to me.

I applied thick black mascara to my lashes to make them long and luscious. Eye makeup made such a difference to a girl's face; as did eyebrows. They were most definitely on fleek tonight.

Pretty soon I was done with the mascara. I scurried out of the bathroom, trying not to piss any of the other girls off; this place was a madhouse.

I was dressed only in a camisole I slept in and underwear, but I'd never really had any shame about my body when it was just in front of other girls. I dug through my trunk, looking for some clothes that would be suitable for a party.

Rosalie was the only one not going crazy in and around the bathroom; she was calmly putting in red dangly earrings to match her bright red lipstick.

"Rosalie," I said. She turned around. "What do I wear?" I asked.

"Slutty clothes, girl," Rosalie said. "Like what I'm wearing."

I took in her outfit. Her top was bright red, the neckline delving so low I was surprised her boobs hadn't fallen out. It was tight and exposed most of her belly. Tight black leather pants covered her legs, complete with black boots with the biggest heel I had ever seen. She looked good, but admittedly quite like a hooker.

"I don't have any clothes like that," I said.

"It's okay, you can wear some of mine. We're about the same size," Rosalie said, "but I think you're a bit slimmer than me…no trouble," she said, falling to her knees and opening her trunk. Lingerie spilled out.

"Holy shit," I said. "Do you wear these all the time?"

"Sure do," Rosalie giggled. "Why, don't you?"

"Not really, no…all my fancy lingerie got thrown out when I moved here," I said.

"What! That's so weird," Rosalie said. "Oh well, um…how about this? It matches your eyes." She pulled out a shimmery green top; it was long-sleeved, had a low neckline and didn't look like it would cover my whole stomach. "Try it on," she said, throwing it at me.

I stared at it. It was nice, yeah. More party-suitable than what I had in my trunk, anyway.

I pulled off my camisole, threw it on my bed and pulled the top over my head. God, it was tight.

Rosalie looked up at me and gasped. "Merlin! Girl, that suits you so much! Wear it, definitely!"

"I don't know, should I?" I said doubtfully.

"Yes!" Rosalie exclaimed. "With these shorts."

She threw over a pair of light wash short denim shorts. There was barely any material there. Don't girls ever get cold here?! I thought Britain was a cold country, compared to Australia at least where most of the time it was very hot.

Nevertheless, I tried them on. They fit.

"Woo, you go girl! Looking fine," Rosalie said.

"Thanks Rosalie," I said. "What shoes?"

"These." She handed me a pair of strappy white sandals that, thankfully, were flats.

I tried them on. I liked them, and they fit.

"Girls, it's nearly seven o'clock! Hurry, we don't want to be late!" Lilac stuck her head out of the bathroom and called out to us.

Ten minutes later everyone was all ready to go.

"Are we even drinking tonight?" Paris asked.

"I don't know if you are but Lillian, Clara and I all chipped in for a bottle of Firewhiskey. Fred went down to Hogsmeade and got some alcohol yesterday," Lilac replied.

"Dammit! Can I share someone's bottle?" Paris asked.

"You can share mine if you give me fifteen Galleons," Grace said. "A bottle costs thirty."

"I don't have any money," Paris whined.

"Then I guess you'll have to go through tonight sober," Rosalie said.

"But I hate going to parties sober," Paris said.

"Your problem, not mine," Rosalie laughed. "Come on girls. Let's go."

Luckily we didn't have to go through the common room to get to the boys' dorm; that would have provoked awkward questions.

We reached a door with 'SEVENTH YEARS' engraved on a golden slab on it. Rosalie knocked.

The door was opened by a dark-skinned boy with dark brown hair. I didn't recognise him.

"Rose!" he exclaimed when he saw Rosalie standing there. He opened the door fully and threw his arms around her. "Knew you would make it! Come in, are all the girls here?"

"Yes, and one more," Rosalie said. "This is Kylie, Jai's cousin."

"Ooh, the veela girl!" the boy exclaimed, looking very excited.

"This is Fred Weasley. He's James's cousin, and the one who bought us all our alcohol," Rosalie laughed.

"I'm of age, brother, I can do what I want now," he said. "Wait…wait, are you that chick James said he was shouting?"

"What?" I asked.

"He came with me to buy the piss and told me he was shouting some pretty new chick. Now that I see you, I can't say I blame him!" he laughed, and threw his arms around me.

I was shocked, to say the least, at the sudden hug but when he pulled away I caught a whiff of Firewhiskey on his breath.

"Come in, girls. Come in. We're all waiting for the girls to arrive," Fred said, and stood aside to let us pass.

We were the first girls to arrive. The room was filled with about twenty boys, most of them holding black Firewhiskey bottles or cups filled with the brown liquid.

"Is Firewhiskey the only alcohol British wizards drink?" I asked Rosalie.

"Nah, there are loads more, but everyone agrees that Firewhiskey is the best," Rosalie said. "It tastes great and it gets you _fucked up!_ "

"Okay," I said.

I looked around. I saw Jai in the corner, having what looked like an argument with Kellan. I decided not to go over there.

Aside from the girls and now Fred, I couldn't see anyone that I knew. I couldn't even see James or Haru or someone. I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, as all the girls had either gone over to a boy or started drinking already. These were moments when I wish I had my phone, when I could look down and pretend to text to avoid looking and feeling awkward.

I drifted over to the side of the room, hoping that maybe someone would approach me. I looked around for Rosalie; I spotted her holding a bottle of Firewhiskey near the bathroom talking and laughing to Fred. I watched them for a while. They looked so happy. Fred looked at her like she was the greatest thing he had ever seen in his life; his adoring eyes stayed fixated on her face while she talked even when her mostly exposed breasts were pushed up so much I was sure they were about to pop out of the shirt. He liked her. It was so damn obvious. He had that little smile on his face that my dad had used to wear whenever he looked at my mother before his life had become the bottle.

Rosalie likely didn't notice what I was noticing about him. She continued to chatter, laughing and flicking her golden hair over her shoulder. She was actually really, really pretty. I could see what Fred saw in her.

I tore my eyes away from the two and looked around the room again. Kellan had disappeared, and Jai was pouring himself a drink over at the makeshift bar on the floor near the bed on the far side of the room.

Pushing myself off the wall, I strode over to him. Yes, I barely knew him, but he knew me and would not just awkwardly avoid eye contact and try to escape if I came up and started talking to him. He'd been extremely friendly to me over the holidays.

"Jai," I said when I reached him.

He looked up from where he was crouched on the floor and smiled when he saw who it was.

"Kylie," he said, "hello! I thought you were Mila. You two have very similar voices."

"Who's Mila?" I asked.

He stood up. "My girlfriend," he said.

"Is she here tonight?" I asked.

"No, not yet. She'll be coming later, she's Head Girl this year and does have her duties," he laughed.

"Sounds good," I said.

"Do you want a drink?" he asked.

"Uh, I don't know," I said. "I haven't paid for it."

"Paid for it? Nonsense Kylie. You're my cousin, and I probably shouldn't be encouraging this but I've always been a bit of a rule breaker. Here, have a sip. Have you ever had alcohol before?"

"Yeah. I drank a lot of muggle alcohol back home," I said.

"I've never had muggle alcohol before! What does it taste like?" Jai asked eagerly. "Take a sip, girl, it won't kill you." He pushed the cup into my hands.

I looked at it and hesitated only a moment before lifting the cup to my lips and taking a sip. It burned on the way down but immediately warmth spread through my body as soon as it went down my throat.

"Well," I said, "my favourite was bourbon. Or vodka, vodka tastes terrible but it has an extremely high alcohol content. Wine and beer though, not my thing."

"I'm sorry, I don't know what any of those words mean," Jai laughed.

"Um, well, bourbon is a spirit, so like Firewhiskey I guess. Vodka is a spirit too but it looks like water and has a very high alcohol content so drinking it straight can be very dangerous. Wine and beer, don't even ask, they taste absolutely disgusting," I said. "I don't know, kind of hard to explain."

"Over the holidays we'll have to sneak out and have a muggle cousin's night out!" Jai laughed.

"You won't be able to buy muggle alcohol, you have to be eighteen," I said. "I had people to get it for me in Australia but I don't know anyone in England…obviously."

"We'll find a way," he said. "Hey, take that cup if you want. Can't go to a party sober, it's no fun. One cup won't get you drunk but it will probably get you tipsy, depending on how lightweight you are," he laughed.

"I'm lightweight as hell, don't you worry," I laughed, "but thanks."

"That's okay," he smiled. "Oh, there's Mila! Sorry I will be going now, but good to catch up with you." He nodded at me and then walked over to the door, where a very pretty brunette girl was standing staring at Jai as he walked over to her.

Great, now I was all –

"Kylie! You made it!"

Guess I wasn't alone anymore.

I turned around, my heart already beating fast at the voice I recognised.

"Hey James," I said, "good to see you."

"I was worrying you wouldn't come!" he exclaimed. "Hey, whose drink is that? I thought I was the only one shouting you tonight," he said.

"Um, it's Jai's, he gave it to me before," I said. "And what does shouting mean?"

"Sharing my alcohol with you without asking you to chip in some money," he said. "I'm a gentleman, can't let my lady get drunk on alcohol that she's paid for." He winked. My heart fluttered.

"I've only got one bottle but it's good shit, Firewhiskey is. Finish that and we'll share?" he suggested.

"Okay," I said, and took another sip.

"Weak! C'mon girl, scull that shit. Drink it like a man."

"You called me a lady not two seconds ago," I laughed.

"Yes. My lady to be precise. But I wanna see you fucked off your face. Drink it." He grinned.

"Not even a bit of peer pressure," I said, but I tipped my head back, brought the cup to my lips and let the burning liquid gush into my mouth.

I sculled the entire cup. Once I was done I crushed it in my hand and threw it to the floor, and stumbled.

James caught my arm, cheering appreciatively.

"Now that's the kind of girl I like!" he cheered.

Butterflies erupted in my stomach. Did he just say he liked me?

"That – that didn't taste that good," I managed to get out.

"Yeah. But definitely tastes better than some of the other alcohol you can get!" James laughed. He took a swig of the bottle. "Here. Want some?"

Jai had been right. That one cup had sent my head spinning and I swayed back and forth as I snatched the bottle from his hand and took another sip.

I hadn't been drunk, or even tipsy, in ages. I'd forgotten how much I'd loved it. It took away everything. Took away my negative thoughts. Took away the pain. Took away the memories. Instead it brought a good mood, a feeling of flying and a damn good time.

"Someone turn the beats up!" James hollered, and within seconds the music that had been in the background while I had been talking was blasting at full volume and people were migrating towards the dance floor.

"Come on girl! Let's dance!" James exclaimed. He took the bottle from my hand, took a sip and dragged me onto the dance floor, our hands interlocked. Electricity shot up my arm and crackled throughout my body. My little gang of butterflies had turned into a swarm.

I don't know how long we danced for. But the bottle was put down, still half full, and we danced, never letting go of each other's hands. I couldn't get the smile off my face.

He leaned in close to me and shouted something in my ear, but I couldn't hear it over the loud music.

"What?" I shouted back.

He shouted again but the only word I heard was 'you'.

"What?!" I shouted again.

He opened his mouth to say something but abruptly the music was turned off and someone yelled "Who wants to play a game of never have I ever?"

Everyone cheered. Well, some people did, including James and I. A group of about ten people, including us two, walked over to the corner where some of the boys had pushed the eight beds in the dorm together to create one massive bed. The ten of us sat around in a circle, each of us holding a bottle or a cup. James and I were still sharing, and our hands were still interlocked.

I didn't know all of the people playing, but there were James and I, Rosalie, Tom, Fred and Clara.

"Who wants to go first?" the boy that had suggested the game asked.

"I'll go first!" Tom yelled. "Never have I ever given a girl head."

"Do I drink if I've done it or if I haven't done it?" I asked James.

"If you have," he said. He took a drink. I felt a stab of intense jealousy.

"We'll go around the circle!" the boy next to Tom said happily. "Never have I ever drank muggle alcohol."

I took a sip. Rosalie and two other girls did too.

"Never have I ever kissed someone of the same gender," Clara said.

I took a drink. The two girls from the last round did as well.

"Ooh, a little lesbian action hey?" James nudged me slyly.

"I was drunk yeah," I said, "really drunk."

Another boy I didn't know was next.

"Never have I ever gotten head from Savanna Jordan," he said.

Every boy that was playing, including James, took a sip.

"That doesn't count Conner because you've gotten head from her before!" Fred exclaimed.

"No, I actually haven't," Conner said slyly. "I screwed her but she never gave me head."

"Slut," one of the girls I didn't know said.

I was beginning to get jealous hearing what James had done with other girls.

He was next.

"Never have I ever," James said, his words slurring, "had sex before."

I hesitated. I bit my lip. Should I? Shouldn't I?

I reached over, took the bottle from his hand and took a good, long sip.

Tom, Rosalie, Conner, Fred, the other two boys I didn't know and one of the girls took a sip as well.

James stared at me. He was a virgin, and I wasn't. Wow. How could someone so perfect never have had sex before?!

"Your turn Kylie," Rosalie said.

"Oh," I said. "Um…um…ummm…never have I ever done extreme drugs before," I said.

Everyone stared at me.

"Extreme?" Conner asked. "What's that mean?"

"Um…" my cheeks went red. "Like crack, cocaine…"

"What's crack?" Tom asked.

God, I was so embarrassed.

"I've done that shit!" one of the boys I didn't know laughed heartily and took a large sip. "Your turn Rose."

Rosalie smiled.

"Never have I ever given Tom Robinson head while he had a girlfriend," she said, a sadistic smile curling on her face. She was staring right at one of the girls I didn't know, the brunette one.

She went red and Tom shouted something indignant that I couldn't decipher.

"Go on Yasmin. Take a sip," Rosalie said nastily.

The brunette girl, Yasmin, glared at Rosalie.

"You're an absolute bitch, it's no wonder he cheated and left you," she snapped.

Rosalie had her wand out in a flash. There was a bang, a flash of bright white light and Yasmin was on the other side of the room, crumpled in a heap and head bleeding.

"Rosalie!" Clara exclaimed. Clara jumped up, grabbed Rosalie and pulled her off the beds. Rosalie was screaming something indecisive but I heard the words "slut" "hate" and the names Yasmin and Tom many times.

Shit…I didn't know it was that bad.

Most of the students that weren't too drunk had rushed over to Yasmin to see what had happened. The music had stopped and I just sat there in shock.

"Party's over! Everybody go back to their dorms! Go! Now!" a boy yelled.

"We should probably go," James said, tugging on my hand.

I shook my head and crawled off the bed, but as soon as I reached the edge I fell off into a crumpled heap on the floor and started giggling.

"You are fucked," James muttered. He didn't seem to be as drunk as me. Now that I was off the bed my head seemed to be spinning a lot more.

He slid his arms underneath me and scooped me up. I giggled, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

Man, I wanted to kiss him so badly.

He carried me out of the dorm room and over to the staircase that led up to the girl's dormitories.

"Why can't you carry me to bed?" I giggled. "It would be cute."

"The stairs turn into a slide if a boy goes up them," James laughed. "Go on, off to bed."

"But I don't wanna go," I whined.

"Off you go, Kylie, I'll see you in the morning," he smiled.

I stared at him for another second and felt so damn tempted to just close the gap between us and crush my lips to his. But something held me back, and I stood my ground.

"Goodnight James," I said, smiling a little.

He smiled back. "Goodnight Kylie."

I stared at him. He stared at me. And then, I turned around and walked up the stone staircase to my dorm and to my bed.


	5. Chapter 5 - Bananas and Blueys

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: To anyone who's still reading this, I can't apologise enough for seeming to abandon the story. I never actually did, but thanks to busy real life schedules and laptops carking it I didn't find much time to write and everything got deleted and I did sort of give up for a while but now I'm back! Hope you enjoy this chapter and the next. :-)**

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Chapter Five – Bananas, Blueys and Fairy Bread

The next morning I woke in my bed with a pounding headache. Sunlight was pouring in through the windows, blinding me and making my head hurt even worse. I groaned in pain, and the noise hurt my ears.

I noticed something itching on my back. I twisted and contorted, trying to reach, but it was no use, and before I knew what was happening I'd fallen off the side of my bed and landed painfully on the floor with a loud _thump._

"Mother _fucker,_ " I whined. "Someone help me!"

"Keep it down princess, some of us are trying to sleep," a groggy voice emerged from behind the curtains of the bed next to me. Damn, that was a good idea. Why hadn't I closed my curtains? Maybe if I had the light wouldn't have woken me.

Clutching my head, I managed to make it to a standing position. I grabbed my wand and staggered to the bathroom. At least I hadn't thrown up yet –

 _Thump._

I was still a little drunk, it would seem, and majorly hung-over. So much so that I'd managed to stumble into the wall next to the bathroom door whilst I had been shading my eyes from the blinding light and still trying to reach the itch.

I'd only just made it to the porcelain sink when a wave of nausea came over me and bile rose up in my throat like rushing water through pipes. Brownish vomit spattered the sink, a few drops hitting the mirror or sinking down to the tiles.

So much for not vomiting.

" _Scourgify,_ " I muttered, pointing my wand at the mess. I then did the same for my mouth.

By now the itch was gone, something that I was eternally grateful for. But there was nothing else I was grateful for at that moment in time.

I looked _awful._ Usually after nights out I'd at least managed to get my makeup off before falling into bed, but I didn't even remember going to bed last night. Had someone carried me?

I'd forgotten how much stronger wizard booze was than muggle. That Firewhiskey was _killer_ , and it reminded me why I'd always stuck to muggle beverages in the past.

Stripping off clothes I knew were definitely _not_ mine, I started the shower. I sighed in bliss as I stepped under the hot water. I just stood there for a minute or two, letting the heated water's goodness soak into my aching body before I started scrubbing myself.

It had been at least a good half hour before I regretfully turned the water off and stepped out into the bathroom. Long showers after a night out were the _best_ , but I was still nauseous with a killer headache. No amount of hot water could cure _that_ aspect of a hangover.

Back in the dorm room, I rummaged around in my trunk for a few moments before pulling out a pair of black loose pants and a comfortable T-shirt. This time of year back home it would have been warm enough to wear a jumpsuit or dress, but even though the sun shining outside looked pleasant there was still a chill to the air. I threw on a jumper.

I muttered a few spells to make sure I looked presentable before shoving my wand ungraciously in my pocket and leaving the room, clutching my head as it pounded in agony. Perhaps a bit of food and a lot of coffee would help.

I'd made it all the way down to the common room, halfway to the portrait hole, when I stopped and realised I was alone. I'd been here a week; I didn't know my way around.

I muttered a curse, and looked around. The common room was mostly empty aside from a couple of third-years playing chess, and some fifth-years doing a bit of study. There was no one around that I recognised.

"Damn," I muttered, and turned back towards my room when someone called out my name.

I looked up. Tom was leaning over the balcony leading to the dorms, grinning. "How you feeling today, princess?"

I groaned. "Don't even ask."

"I though all you ladies would still be in bed, it's not even nine o'clock yet. Were you heading to the Great Hall?"

"Yeah, I was. Well, sort of. I don't know the way yet," I admitted sheepishly. I noticed one of the fifth-years look up and give me a disbelieving look out of the corner of my eye, but I pretended not to notice.

"Don't worry. I'll show you the way. I'm feeling perfectly dandy and not hung-over at all," Tom grinned. He disappeared and reappeared at the foot of the stairs a few moments later. "You were very drunk last night."

"I know," I muttered. "I can't even remember half the night. What happened?"

"Well," Tom said thoughtfully as we began to make our way out of the common room and towards the portrait hole, "it was just an average party for the most part, except for when a game of never have I ever started up and Rosalie got a bit pissy about Yasmin."

"Who's Yasmin?"

Tom at least had the grace to look ashamed. "The girl I, er," he started, "the girl I slept with while I was with Rosalie."

My eyes widened, and a foggy memory came back to me. "Did they get in a fight?"

"I suppose you could call it that. Rosalie hexed Yas and knocked her out, and then everyone started yelling and fighting and Fred decided it was best for everyone to just go to bed. James took you out."

"He did?" I felt a blush creeping up my neck. "Did he, uh…?"

"I don't know what you're alluding to there but all he did was get you out of the dorm and back to yours. You could barely even walk on your own, I think he knows not to give you so much next time."

"I never drink Firewhiskey," I complained. "I always preferred muggle alcohol."

"Muggle alcohol is _weak_ ," Tom said. "Weak, weak, weak!"

"Well…at least I never threw up the next morning when I had muggle alcohol. I'm smart."

"Not smart enough to refuse Firewhiskey when James gives it to you," Tom said slyly. "I bet if it was someone else…"

"What are you getting at?" I demanded.

Tom waggled his eyebrows. "I think someone has a little crush on Jamesy."

"I do not," I disagreed hotly. "I've only known him a week, that's barely enough time to develop a crush on someone. Besides, he's, he's not my type."

"Oh really?" I could tell from the boy's amused tone of voice that he strongly disagreed. "And what, pray tell, is your type then?"

I opened my mouth but I was lost for words. "Just stop talking okay. I have a headache."

Tom laughed, and by that time we were in the Great Hall.

We drew several looks from other Gryffindors as we made our way down the table to the other sixth-years; none of the girls were there, but James was. The sight of him after the conversation I'd just had with Tom about him made me blush even more.

"Ah, and the princess arises!" James boomed. He pushed over one of the boys and wiggled over to make an empty space on the bench next to him. He patted it, and I gingerly sat down. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," I moaned. My headache was pounding, and my stomach was twisting. The food in front of me couldn't have looked any less appetising.

"Being honest I thought you wouldn't be up for another couple of hours. Early riser?" he raised an eyebrow.

I shrugged. "Not really. Just wanted some coffee I guess."

"The only cure for hangovers known to man to this day," Kellan grinned across from me. I hadn't even noticed him when I'd sat down. "Do you take sugar?"

"Three," I said.

He dropped three sugar cubes into a goblet before pouring a generous amount of the sweet brown liquid in, giving it a stir before passing it over to me. I gratefully took a sip, barely even noticing as the temperature scorched my tongue.

My tense muscles relaxed as the caffeine flowed through them and my headache eased just the tiniest bit, but if there was one thing a coffee did not cure it was nausea.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," I gasped, a moment before I turned and retched on the floor behind me.

Laughter echoed around me, and when I sat back up again my face was flaming red. I took out my wand and muttered a quick cleaning spell of the bile, but it couldn't magic away the embarrassment. And in front of _James_ , no less…

Surprisingly though, James wasn't laughing, just smiling. "There, bet you feel better now, hmm?"

"Yeah," I allowed. "A bit, yeah."

James grabbed a handful of bacon, next some eggs, and dumped them onto my plate. I eyed them in apprehension.

"Eat, seriously," he urged. "Greasy food is the best when you have a hangover. Trust me, I know." He belched loudly, and laughed before grabbing another handful of bacon for his plate. He began wolfing it down.

I'd only tentatively taken a bite of bacon and a nibble of egg when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Professor Longbottom, the Herbology teacher and Head of Gryffindor House, eying me concernedly.

"Miss Clancy," he said worriedly, "I saw you throw up from the Head Table. Are you quite alright? Do you need a trip to the Hospital Wing?"

"No thanks, Professor," I managed, "but thank you. I think I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" he pressed. "You're rather pale…"

"I'm fine. Seriously. Just a passing bug." I smiled.

Longbottom looked around before leaning in and whispering in my ear, "James is wrong you know. Greasy food and coffee won't help you. Gallons of water, bananas, dates and leafy greens always helped me after I'd had a big night." He straightened and winked at me before walking off back to the Head Table. I stared after him, my eyes wide.

"Wow," James laughed. "He really is the coolest teacher, hey?"

"Hey," I said, amazed. "If we'd had a party in the dorms and had alcohol before we turned eighteen back home…the teachers would've had our heads on spikes. No joke."

"The other teachers would. Neville? He's pretty cool about this sort of thing." James beamed widely, and offered me a banana. "Maybe you should have this instead then."

Grace wasn't long in coming down from the dorms after that. She looked as pretty and clean as ever, without so much as a hint of the drunk wreck she'd probably been last night.

"Hello, hung-over friends," she said cheerfully as she sat down next to Kellan and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "How is everybody feeling today?"

"Probably not as bad as princess here," Tom snickered, nodding towards me. I glared at him as best as I could with my mouth full of a mixture of iced water and spinach.

"Bit of a rough night hey?" Grace simpered at me. "Oh, poor you. Maybe next time you should keep a closer eye on her, James. Looks like she can't handle her drinks."

I glared at her, and this time I didn't have any trouble with it. There was just something I didn't like about her. She annoyed me.

"Well, Grace, not to be rude or anything, but if you'd drank more than two shots you'd be feeling it today as well," James offered. "But to be honest, I've never seen someone so off their head from two shots, and have also never seen someone who acted so drunk be so un-hung-over the next morning."

Grace went pink. The boys laughed, and I snickered into my water. Maybe James didn't like her snarky jabs either.

"I had more than two shots," she said peevishly. "I had nearly half a bottle of Odgen's, thank you very much."

"More like two sips of Odgen's," Kellan snickered.

Grace stayed quiet after that, something which I was forever grateful for. Even her _voice_ annoyed me. I couldn't quite place exactly _what_ it was that annoyed me so much about her, she was just one of those people. The fact that she didn't let Kellan talk to any other girls, grudgingly even me, annoyed me even more. He could do so much better.

"Say, the sun's nice out today," James offered. "Anyone feel like a wander around the lake?"

"You're so girly," Conner laughed a few seats down. "But yeah, I'll come. Fetch Anna on the way, she looks as though she's having withdrawals." He glanced over towards the Ravenclaw table and blew a kiss to a pretty brunette who immediately melted and blew one back at him.

"Care to come and prevent me third-wheeling?" James nudged me. "I may have been wrong about the food, but a good soak in the sun always helps a hangover."

Food forgotten, I grinned. "Sure."

The three of us stood up.

"Remember she's my cousin, James," Kellan said loudly between the fervent kisses Grace was placing on his lips. "Keep your hands where they should be."

James winked at Kellan as he took my arm and followed Conner over to the Ravenclaw table where he pulled the brunette into a passionate kiss.

"Aren't you worried that they'll, you know," I said uncertainly, "start rumours about us?"

"Rumours?" James laughed. "Who, Kellan and Bray and that? Darling, there's always rumours flying around about the infamous James Potter the Second. And besides, there's not a male in this Hall – except, maybe your blood relatives – that'd turn down a chance to get even five minutes with you. Why _wouldn't_ I want rumours flying around that the infamous James Potter is the one who has captured her heart?" he grinned deviously.

I blushed. "Well…I'm sure that vomiting at the table wasn't the most attractive thing."

"Oh, chill about the vomiting thing. Barely anyone even noticed." He grinned as Conner and the girl Anna broke apart and made for the doors, not even turning to see whether James and I were following.

We chatted amiably about the usual stuff, classes and Quidditch and whatnot, for what seemed like ages. We'd left the castle and were nearly halfway round the lake (we'd lost Conner and Anna ages ago – James's guess was they were hiding in a bush somewhere having sex) when he started to ask about Australia.

"I mean, I've never been," he said, "but it seems really great there. Like, what's so different about there? What would you usually do in a day?"

"Well," I started off, "it's…hot, for one. Sometimes it can get up to fifty degrees Celsius in the height of summer, which in Fahrenheit is…um…one hundred and twenty? Thereabouts?"

James looked blank. "What's Celsius? And Fahrenheit?"

"It's the terms muggles use to measure temperature," I explained, "although different countries use different measurements. In Australia, for example, we use Celsius. Fahrenheit is a different measurement. I'm guessing you don't take Muggle Studies?"

"Hell no," James said. "Apparently that's the most boring subject there is here."

"Well, I suppose in Australia the muggle world is integrated a lot more with the wizarding world than it is in England," I said thoughtfully. "I mean, obviously we're still kept a secret, but like, we use cars and…Celsius and stuff. If you don't know what Celsius and Fahrenheit is, how do you know how hot or cold it is?" I frowned.

"They just say, like, it's this many degrees," James said. "Is that what you mean by, like 120 degrees?"

"Yeah."

"Yeesh," James exclaimed. "That's _crazy!_ How do you survive? Does it snow?"

"In the Eastern States it does sometimes, but I'm from the west, and in the west it never snows. I've never seen snow before in my life."

" _Yeesh!_ " James exclaimed. "That's even crazier! The first day it snows this term, we're going to build a snowman and have a snowball fight. Okay?"

"Okay," I giggled. He wanted to spend time with me.

"What else is different?" he asked eagerly. "Apparently they like use a whole different language over there while still speaking English so it's like impossible to understand. What does that mean?"

"Like slang, you know," I said. "Like…durrie instead of cigarette. Ankle biter, small child. Bluey, redhead. Tradie, tradesman. You get the gist."

"No," James said, bemused. "Not really. What's the point?"

I shrugged. "I don't know? It's just funny." I laughed. "I mean, why would you call a ranga Bluey?"

"What's a ranga?"

I stared at him. "Um, someone with red hair."

He narrowed his eyes. "Is that a derogatory term?"

I looked at him, wide-eyed. "No, no, no! It's just a description."

His expression relaxed. "Alright, good," he said. "You Australians have so many weird words, you could be standing right here insulting me and I wouldn't even know."

I laughed uneasily. "Uh…"

"What about food?" he asked brightly. "Delicacies?"

"Uh, vegemite?" I said. He looked at me blankly. "It's a spread you put on toast, like…like jam. Except it's black and it's not sweet and unlike jam it's delicious."

" _You don't like jam?_ " his jaw would hit the floor soon if he let it fall any more. "What is wrong with you?"

"It's alright in a PB and J sanga," I smirked, knowing that he'd have absolutely no idea what I meant. As expected, he looked at me blankly. "Peanut butter and jelly sandwich," I translated.

"Ew," he crinkled his nose. "What the hell? That's disgusting."

"It's not," I said defensively. "Next you're going to tell me fairy bread and Pavlova and lamingtons and ANZAC biscuits are disgusting…"

"Well I have had Pavlova and lamingtons before," he conceded, "and they are nice. But what the hell is 'fairy bread' and 'ANZAC'?"

"Fairy bread is white bread with butter and colourful hundreds of thousands sprinkled thickly on top, stuck to the bread by butter. So good. ANZAC is the name given to the muggle Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in the muggle World Wars. ANZAC biscuits are really hard and really tasty."

"You shall have to introduce me to all of these 'delicacies' one day," he smirked. "It appears I have much to learn about Australian culture."

"That you do," I giggled.

We stopped our walk and sat down on the grass, the side of the lake that was next to the Forbidden Forest. I lay down and covered my eyes, soaking up the precious sun. In Australia this kind of weather – sunny but chilly – was what the weather was like in the height of winter, but apparently in England it was a rare treat and not to be disregarded. I dreaded to find out how cold it might get when winter came at the end of the year.

"You know, all my life I just planned to stay in Britain," James said thoughtfully from above me. "I love England. I love Hogwarts. It's my home. But since I've met you I've finally realised that there's actually a whole world out there, and once I graduate I don't want to just get a job at the Ministry and live here all my life. I want to travel. I want to taste all these weird foods you talk of and go to the splendid beaches you drool over. You know I've never even been to the beach?"

I moved my arm and squinted up at him. "I know, you told me. Trust me, you're missing out. The beaches along the West Coast are simply to die for." I sighed. "You know, I even miss footy. I know it's a muggle game and all, and you wouldn't have a clue what it is because it's literally only played in Australia, but we used to play it all the time, the school even invested in a giant muggle oval just so that we could play it." I sighed.

"I know you miss home," James said hesitantly. "I would too, if I suddenly had to pack up and move halfway across the world to live with relatives I don't even know. But like…England is great. Hogwarts is great. I know it's only been a week and you're probably hating it but it'll get better. Trust me."

I stared up at him.

"I don't hate it," I said. "I don't hate it at all."


	6. Chapter 6 - A Competition of Jealousy

Chapter 6 – A Competition of Jealousy

"Hey." A cautious voice made me look up from my Transfiguration text. It was Haru, a shy Japanese boy that Kellan and James were friends with. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Hi Haru!" I said. "Not at all, take a seat." He smiled gratefully and sat down next to me. Haru was nice, but I'd barely talked to him and, sitting with Haru meant that James (who wasn't in class yet) couldn't sit there. But I was much too nice to say that, however.

"Thanks," he said. "So, how have you been? Settling in alright?"

"Yeah, not too bad," I said, "can't complain. Everyone has been so nice."

"I heard you had a bit of a big weekend," he chuckled. "Don't worry, I've had my fair share of nights I can't remember as well, I'm not judging you. Feel it much the next morning?"

"Yes," I admitted, turning red at the memory of vomiting all over the floor at breakfast on Saturday morning. "I was fine by the afternoon though. James and I went and soaked up some nice September sun."

Haru looked a little uncomfortable at that comment. "So you and James are…pretty close, then?" he seemed as though he was proceeding carefully, analysing each word he was about to say before he said it. He stared at me expectantly.

"Um," I said, "I, uh, I guess. We're friends. I've only known him a week though, so…not like it's like…like a thing…"

Haru nodded understandingly. "Of course," he said. "But I think I should probably warn you…" he looked around before leaning close and lowering his voice. "James is my friend of course, but I will be the first to tell you he's a bit of a…player. He goes through girls faster than I change clothes. And as you said, you've only known him a week, not six years like the rest of us. It won't last, trust me it won't."

"Um, okay," I said, frowning. I didn't quite know what to feel about this statement. I'd had a crush on James since the moment I'd met him, that was for sure, and I'd been beginning to hope that maybe, possibly, he was working his way towards feeling the same…but I'd had my doubts. Doubts that I was imagining it, doubts that I was just a conquest, doubts, doubts, doubts…

But no. If I was only a conquest he surely would have tried to get with me at Fred's party. A girl was easiest when she was drunk, right? Or maybe… _fuck. I don't know._

"I'm sorry if I've hurt you," Haru said hurriedly. "I didn't, I didn't mean to, I just don't want you to get hurt…"

"No, Haru, it's fine," I said. "Seriously, it's fine. Thanks for the input."

"Please tell me you'll heed it."

I didn't reply, as at that moment Professor Bronson swept in and demanded silence.

"We will be getting straight into it today," the redheaded professor said briskly. "Human transfiguration. You all did the required reading I set for homework, I presume? Good. I will know if you didn't. Now who can tell me –"

The door banged open.

"S – Sorry I'm late Professor," James said breathlessly. "I, uh, I got caught up." His face was flushed and his hair, although always messy, was even messier than usual, if that was possible. His buttons were done up incorrectly and his clothes looked like they'd been put on in a rush. Either he'd just woken up, or…

"Take a seat, Potter," Bronson said tersely. "Oh, and wipe that lipstick off your neck. You're not a girl."

The rest of the class laughed out loud as James turned bright red, but my heart dropped to the floor. My guess that he'd just woken up was undoubtedly wrong. He'd probably been up for a while, and not with me.

I noticed Haru looking at me out of the corner of my eye.

"He might not have been…you know…" he started hesitantly.

"Even I know James better than that." I snorted, and tried not to let the moisture through into my eyes. "He wasn't at breakfast."

Haru fell silent after that.

James looked around the classroom. His eyes found mine and he looked disappointed at the fact that the seat next to me was not free. I looked away as soon as he caught my eye though. I couldn't _believe_ him. Did he think he could just run into class late after hooking up with some whore and expect I'd be here waiting placidly for him with a spare seat?

Well, he had a lot to learn about me.

He ended up sitting next to a short-haired girl in the second row, a girl in Ravenclaw. He sat as far away from her as physically possible on the small desk, as if he were scared to even accidentally brush her arm.

Bronson spent the lesson talking, and I tried my very hardest to listen, but the words just went in one ear and out the other. There was no way I could concentrate on human transfiguration with so many catastrophic emotions roiling about my mind.

Why should I even care so much? I knew from the moment I laid eyes on him that he was a player, no matter how I felt about him. And were they even real feelings? Or was it just an attraction because he was good-looking? I'd had my fair share of boys falling in love with me at first sight because of what I now knew to be Veela genes, but once they'd gotten to know me and had a bit of a taste they'd grown bored and the attraction had died. Maybe that was just what it was. An attraction. Because he was good-looking. Yes. Maybe I could just kiss him and get it over with and then focus on finding a nice boy who was real boyfriend material. Yes. That was a good plan.

When the bell rang for the lesson's end, I packed up my things quickly and left before anyone had a chance to talk to me, even Haru. After our first little chat at the beginning of the lesson we hadn't said a word to each other.

I hurried to my next class – DADA – and was the first Gryffindor there. Most of the Ravenclaws had already arrived and there were two Hufflepuffs and a coppery-haired Slytherin. I didn't know the Slytherin boy, but he was staring at me. Maybe…

I glanced over my shoulder. James was approaching with Kellan and the others, and if he was going to hook up with other people, well I could damn well play the very same game.

I gathered up my courage and walked over to the boy from Slytherin.

He saved me the embarrassment of talking first when he stepped forward and introduced himself.

"Adrian," he said, "Adrian Dolohov."

"I'm Kylie Clancy," I responded. "Lovely to meet you."

"Even lovelier to meet you." He smirked, and looked me up and down appreciatively. I inwardly shuddered at his predatory gaze, but made myself speak anyway.

"So, I've noticed you're in quite a few of my classes," I said, inching the slightest bit closer to him. "Care for some company?"

"I can't think of anything better." His smirk widened. "Well."

"Well." I grabbed his arm and pulled him in as the professor opened the door.

We were the first ones in, and I pulled him to the back corner. He sat down next to me and as I began taking out my books he simply sat looking at me.

"You're gorgeous. You know that?"

I stopped fussing with my books and looked at him. I took in his features. He was pretty good-looking too, to be honest. Big brown eyes, pale unblemished skin over high cheekbones. Dimpled chin, and although his nose was slightly crooked it was easy to overlook.

"You're not so bad yourself," I replied. "You know that?"

He leaned in closer. "I do now."

"This is a bloody broom cupboard," I said an hour later as Adrian shoved me inside and closed the door. "Why are we in a broom cupboard? Why aren't we in a dorm?"

"Because if we walked all the way to my dorm," he said, "that would mean more time walking and less time snogging."

"We could have gone to mine."

"That would've been even more walking. Boys can't get into the girl's dormitories. Castle doesn't allow it."

And then he was kissing me, roughly pulling me against him with one hand, the other sliding down my back.

My hands found their way into his hair, and his tongue found its way into my mouth. He was a bit of a rough and sloppy kisser, but he was good enough. Thoughts of Adrian consumed me. His hands began to undo my robes, and then the buttons on my shirt. He threw off his own robe and his tie fell to the floor.

"How far do you want to go?" he murmured, briefly taking his lips from mine to suck on my neck.

"I don't want to fuck in a broom cupboard," I gasped. "But this is nice."

But it didn't take long before the novelty of kissing a new and good-looking guy faded, as it always did. My body calmed down and all of a sudden the bites on my neck hurt; they didn't feel good.

I pushed him off me.

"What are you doing?" he asked in annoyance as I picked up my shirt and began to re-button it.

"Class is going to start soon," I said, "and besides, I haven't eaten yet. You may want to stay and snog all break but I need at least a snack. We can continue this later." I knew it was a lie. It always was.

"You're a tease aren't you," he murmured, brushing my hair away from my neck. "Didn't even let me go long enough to leave a mark."

"Next time," I promised. There won't be a next time. "Sit with me tomorrow." I'll sit with Rosalie.

I threw my robes on over my uniform and quickly brushed a hand through my hair before shuffling over to the door.

"You're the biggest fucking tease I've ever met," he growled. "There better be a next time."

"There will be." I leaned over and gave him another long kiss, but instead of being nice, it just made me want to leave straight away.

So that's what I did. Without another word I slipped out of the cupboard and hurried down the corridor towards the Great Hall.

Most of the Hall was full when I walked in. I hurried over to my friends at the Gryffindor table and sat down in between Rosalie and Tom. There was a wide gap between them.

"Where have you been?" Rosalie asked in exasperation. "Your hair's a mess!"

"Could you braid it for me or something?" I asked. "You're good at that aren't you?"

"Yeah. Yeah I am. Turn around."

I turned so I was straddling the bench and facing Tom. He was looking at me and giggling.

"What are you laughing at?" I smirked.

"Where have you been?" he asked. "Missing something?"

I frowned.

" _Shit!_ I don't have my bag," I said.

"That's got to suck," Tom laughed. "Who has it?"

As I began to stand up I noticed Adrian entering the Great Hall. He looked incredibly pleased with himself, and he was carrying two bags.

He stopped at the entrance before spotting me and making his way towards me. Tom followed my gaze, as did Kellan, Conner and James, who had been listening in to the conversation.

"Kylie!" Kellan boomed. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing," I said innocently. "I must've left my bag in class. Adrian is bringing it back to me."

"Adrian, is he?" my cousin eyed me suspiciously. "Might I ask why you were sitting with a Slytherin in the first place?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

Adrian reached us.

"You left your bag," he said mildly as he dumped it on the space of bench between Tom and I. "See you in Potions." He left.

"My, he's not even that bad looking," Rosalie giggled from behind me. "Did you really snog him, Kylie?"

I shrugged, but that was all the answer they needed I guess.

"And I thought I was good. You've been here what, a week?" Kellan laughed. "Not even I'd gotten a good snog within a week of being here."

"Probably because you were eleven when you came here," Grace said from beside him, her tone laced with annoyance. "Kylie is sixteen."

"Fair point, my love. Fair point." He turned and gave her a long kiss.

My eyes settled on James. His lips were pursed and his brown eyes were dancing with…something. I couldn't quite read what it was. But he didn't look happy.

Exactly the reaction I'd been waiting for, and exactly the reason why I'd purposely left my bag in that broom cupboard with Adrian.

He turned away as soon as he met my gaze, and began talking to the girl on his other side. This time it was me who pursed my lips.

But if he could hook up with other girls, then I was at perfect liberty to hook up with other guys too. Just because we'd been 'close' didn't mean shit. He was still a player. And I guess I was one still too.

But I couldn't help but feel a little sad as well. No matter how angry I was at him for hooking up with someone this morning (as unwarranted as that anger was…it's not like we were official or anything…we'd only known each other a week!) my heart still did a little jump whenever he looked at me. Maybe getting with Adrian was a bad idea…

 _No._ No it wasn't. I wouldn't allow another boy to wrap me around his little finger and play me again and again like an instrument. If he was going to play me, then I could just as well play him.

I'd already had my heart broken by a boy like him once before.

I'd been all too ready to disregard Haru's warning about him, but then he'd rushed into the classroom after all too clearly having been with a girl…I may have a crush, but I wasn't stupid.

Two could play this game.

As break ended James walked off arm in arm with the girl he'd been talking to. He sat with Aiden in Potions too, when usually we would work together. I wasn't sure if I was sad, or angry. Those two emotions usually got tangled up with each other inside of me.

James wasn't in the Great Hall at lunch, but he showed up on time for double Charms. He still ignored me though, and I still wasn't sure whether I was happy about that or sad.

I think it was the latter.

I sighed as I took a seat next to Kellan, behind James and Tom. Lillian, Clara, Lilac and Bonnie sat to my left. They always sat near me in Charms, but never with me. The four of them had had a friendship of six years that I just wasn't a part of. I usually sat with James or Kellan instead, which I didn't mind. But it would have been nice to have had Rosalie in this class. She always made me feel included, like I was a part of the group.

Professor Johns started off the lesson by asking everyone questions about the homework. I didn't get called on, but Kellan did, and he fumbled around for the answer until I whispered it to him and Johns thanked me for the answer instead of Kellan, having clearly seen the whisper.

"Today we'll be doing group work," she announced. "Sort yourselves into groups of four. I'd like mixed please, no all-boy groups and no all-girl groups. Sit around a table once you've sorted out your groups and I will give you your next instruction."

I immediately turned to Kellan. "Please be in my group," I said.

"Woo hoo, no worries coz. Robbo, Potter, come complete our group," Kellan called to Tom and James.

"Perfect," Tom said. "Jimmy?"

"What do we even need groups of four for?" James asked as he turned around. The question was not directed at me, and I realised it was the first time I'd heard his voice all day. It made me melt on the inside. As usual.

"Who even knows? Johns used to teach at a muggle primary school before coming here, it's probably some little-kiddy groupwork," Tom rolled his eyes. He and James turned around on their chairs so they were facing Kellan and I.

A few minutes later, Johns called for silence again.

"Right, does everyone have a group?" no one said anything, so she continued. "Now, does anyone know what the London House for Primary Wizarding Education is?"

Lillian raised her hand.

"It's like an optional primary school for magical children, where they go to learn basic control over their accidental magic and basic skills for life like muggle maths and reading and writing," she said. "I went there as a kid."

"Exactly correct," Johns said. "Now I've organised with the Headmaster of the House that I would get together a group of my most talented sixth-years to put on a day of shows for the little kids after the Christmas holidays. Since I believe you're all my most talented sixth-years, since you're the top Charms class with the best Charms grade on your O.W.L.s across all of the sixth-years, I thought I'd turn it into a project!" she smiled. "In your groups you are to create a five to ten minute puppet play of your imagination. You are to make the puppets, write the script, animate the puppets, and use as many magical special effects as you like. This will be on top of our usual schedule mind you, we will only be using this double lesson each week to work on it. Else you will be using your time outside of class to work on it. This _will_ be graded, and it is worth forty percent of your semester mark. I suggest you put on an entertaining puppet show."

The class broke out into chatter.

"This is the most ridiculous project I have ever been given," James whined. "Fred told me she gave ridiculous projects out to her sixth-years, but I didn't think it would be _this_ bad."

"Oh, lighten up. At least it's a five to ten minute puppet play, not ten five thousand word essays," I rolled my eyes.

He stared at me. I stared back. The staring continued for a good minute before his frown broke into a grin.

"Well if you're so excited about it then you can be the one to write the script," he declared.

"Fine," I said, grabbing some parchment from my bag and dipping my quill in Kellan's inkpot. "I'll make sure your puppet dies."

"You will do no such thing."

"I will. Just watch me."

"And the flirting returns," Tom said dramatically. "Jesus you two scared us for a while there. With the nasty looks and no flirting and all."

James and I simultaneously gave him a dirty look.

"Oh go fuck Yasmin Davies again," James sniggered.

"I didn't in the first place!" Tom argued hotly. "I got with her, but we didn't go _all_ the way…"

"Sure, sure, keep telling yourself that," Kellan sniggered. "Not that I could blame you. Rose was annoying me and I wasn't even the one dating her."

"How do you think I felt," Tom muttered.

"Don't call her Rose, it reminds me of my cousin and it disturbs me to think of my cousin getting with a troll like you," James said seriously.

"Twat," Tom tried to swat him over the head but James ducked.

"Least I'm not a troll."

"Oh, and one more thing," Johns called. "All of your incantations are to be non-verbal. The only words I want to hear are those coming from the mouths of the puppets. No verbal spells!"

" _Great_ ," Kellan moaned. "The _one_ thing I can't do. She can't at least teach non-verbal spells to us first before giving us an assignment on them?"

"During our other lessons I will be teaching non-verbal incantations," Johns said.

"Spoke too soon," I said.

"The rest of this lesson will be for you to discuss your show. Get to it! Only a lesson and a half remaining!"

"This class is ridiculous," Kellan muttered. "Let's get started."


End file.
